Rev. Robert Krajenke
Greetings
If you are taking the time to read this, I imagine you are more than idly curious; rather I imagine that you are seeking for something beyond what can be bought, sold or traded. I imagine you are seeking for something that speaks to your soul, either for answers, healing, happiness -- or a place to plug in to a spiritual connection, family or home. At least, I hope you are. Without seeking, there is no finding.
The Fellowship of the Inner Light has been my spiritual home and family since the early 1980's. My initial spiritual awakening occurred and was fostered through the Association for Research & Enlightenment and Edgar Cayce Readings, and was nurtured through a decade long active membership with the Virginia Beach Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). My soul was richly nourished and fed in the deep silence of Quaker worship, but in time, I began to feel the absence of music and ritual and the need for a more varied and creative outlet for my evolving spiritual consciousness, both in worship and community. I began attending Fellowship services and became an active participant in the Fellowship community as the Center Director for three years. This was an enormously rich and satisfying period of creative worship, concerts, art exhibits, plays and dialogue, a unique period of time fostered through the genius of Paul Solomon to attract, support and encourage the expression of the latent and all too often undervalued gifts of the creative spirit within us. Following my time as director of the Virginia Beach Fellowship, I relocated to Hearthfire Lodge, the Fellowship Retreat Center in the Shenandoah Valley for the purpose of co-authoring his life story with Paul Solomon. This project was set aside as Paul put his efforts and creativity toward development of powerful residential transformational learning experiences for HearthFire in which I had the privilege of participating.
I left Hearthfire for Holland, where I did several programs based on my work with the Edgar Cayce Readings on the Old Testament. News of my father's cancer brought me back home to Detroit in late 1987 to spend time with him until he passed into spirit in April, the following year. I met and married Christene Lynne Browning the following year and remained in Detroit until December 2004, when Bruce Shelton, Senior Pastor of the Virginia Beach Fellowship, offered me employment as a caregiver for his elderly father. While the outer expression of my marriage to Lynne dissolved in divorce, our union has remained in tact and deeply bonded on the inner levels as we remain spiritually connected and mutually supportive on inner planes, reflecting both our deep commitment to healing processes.
As a pastor and active member of the Fellowship of the Inner Light, I facilitate a prayer, meditation and spiritual healing group on Thursday evenings and a quarterly spiritual healing Sunday service. On the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month, I also facilitate a spiritual support and discussion group focused on the poetry and exalted insights of the great 13th Century sufi master and poet, Jelaluddin Rumi.
I am also the author of the three volume study, Edgar Cayce's Story of the Old Testament, Spiritual Power Points, and Spiritual Power, Healing Hands, co-authored with renown British spiritual healer, Malcolm Smith.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Perhaps in the future, we will meet face to face. The three poems below are my gift to you for reading this far.
THREE POEMS BY RUMI
The Spirit of Healing
(captures the spirit and ideal of our spiritual healing services)
We are healers, wisemen from the east!
We have cured many from sorrow and blindness.
We uproot the cause of all pain.
We bring the dead to life
because we have learned our skills from Christ.
Ask those who have witnessed our signs.
We mix our medicine from plants of Paradise
and need no instruments,
for we run through the body like thought.
We are healers of spirit and do not look for reward.
But before we leave, remember not to speak to us.
Guard your words, for the world is full of unfriendly ears.
Love Dogs
One night a man was crying, "Allah! Allah!"
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said, "So! I have heard you
calling out, but have you ever
gotten any response."
The man had no answer to that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.
He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage.
"Why did you stop praising?"
"Because I never heard anything back."
"This longing you express is the return message.”
The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness
that wants help
is the secret cup.
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love-dog
no one knows the name of.
Give your life
to be one of them.
The Chickpea
A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot
where it is being boiled.
"Why are you doing this to me?”
The cook knocks it down with the ladle.
"Don't you try to jump out.
You think I am torturing you,
I'm giving you flavor,
so you can mix with spices and rice
And be the lovely vitality of a human being.
Remember when you drank rain in the garden.
That was for this."
Grace first. Sexual pleasure,
then a boiling new life begins,
And the Friend has something good to eat.
*******
Blessings and Peace on your spiritual quest. Please come and visit us for fellowship and inspiration every Sunday at 10:45 a.m.
*******
Rev. Robert Krajenke
Previous Months in the Pastor's Corner...
April 2006 - Sarah Anderson
May 2006 - Cynthia Funk
June 2006 - Larry Jennings
July 2006 - Angela Jones
August 2006 - Kathryn Kenyon
For more information please call the Fellowship at: 757-428-5782
